Friday, December 18, 2009

Anyone need to puke? he he

"There's an awful lot of gagging and retching in this story."

This is what my editor wrote on my corrected manuscript. I laughed out loud. How could I not? Of course there's puking! This is a boy's story, after all. I love her notes. They kill me.

Kristin is super cool, very straight forward and to the point. As for editing . . . I'm catching on now. I get it. I can delete whole paragraphs without a second thought. I used to writhe in pain with each correction. Now, I'm a surgeon, a scalpel in both hands.

I love how my story sounds as I go along, hacking and cutting. Kristine tells me I use too many adverbs, my paragraphs are wordy and awkward, and I'm sure she wonders why I don't know the difference between its and it's. I do. It's just a habit to add that dang apostrophe!

I'm so grateful WiDo could see past the amateur to the message beneath. You guys are going to love the finished product! Thanks for being strict, Kristine. This book will be awesome because of you!

11 comments:

nephite blood spartan heart said...

I relate-plenty of things she had me cut too and it took a little getting used to.

Now there is no more serpent like metaphors for Gadiantons.

Mary Gray said...

Well I cut 30k words... hopefully you won't need to cut that many!

Tamara Hart Heiner said...

adverbs are the biggest thing that unpublished authors don't know about.

my story says things like, "there's an awful lot of eyes looking around here." LOL.

30K, Mary? Wow. I thought I cut a lot. I cut 16K.

Karen Jones Gowen said...

Hacking and cutting. Not good in life but very good in writing.

Kate said...

30k--I need to learn how to use more words!

Bethany Wiggins said...

I can't wait to read it!

Suzette Saxton said...

Hi Melissa,

Thanks for the hello on Utah Childrens Writers Group. :)

This post is great! I love getting a glimpse into what edits are like.

Elizabeth Mueller said...

A Hacking Kristine goes, a hacking Kristine goes, hi-ho the merrio a hacking Kristine goes...
Has she gotten lost in the wild jungle safari of the Tanub lands?
So happy you found a home for your book, Melissa! :)

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